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DDD. Chapter 9: The Creole Dialect

Page 1

[CHAPTER 9]
[Page 1]
THE CREOLE DIALECT
The term “Creole language” is applicable to none other than the Creole patois, a distorted French dialect which the newly arrived African slaves evolved out of their own distortion of the language of their masters. This type of French, although varied in pronunciation in different localities, has been found to have a uniformly basic structure in regard to the rules of grammar wherever it is spoken. Many French-speaking people of Louisiana believe that “It takes a whole life to speak such a language in form.”1
The African slave was at a disadvantage in the New World. He was thrust into a more complex civilization whose speech was at variance with his own. He was at a disadvantage when at work, in times of stress and danger, in warding off punishments for real or fancied wrongdoings, while on the streets, or in the courts. He was even at a disadvantage when being sold, and commanded a cheaper price in cases where he did not understand enough of the language of his masters to make possible even the rudest exchange of speech with them. Misconceptions of certain sounds of speech, a continuous erosion of some words and a distortion of others, loose articulation and a want of energy in speaking, all combined to produce a Creole patois of today.2 It was this patois that the African slave slowly evolved out of the dire necessity of a better understanding between him and his French masters in the New World. And just as he evolved Creole in the French-speaking sections, he also evolved “Bouriki,” a type of

The unpublished manuscript "The Negro in Louisiana" is a work begun by the Dillard (University) Project in 1942, an arm of the WPA's Federal Writer's Project. After the dissolution of the unit, Marcus Christian maintained and edited the document in hopes of eventual publication. It is reproduced here as an annotated transcript, with original typos, chapters, and paginations preserved.

[CHAPTER 9]
[Page 1]
THE CREOLE DIALECT
The term “Creole language” is applicable to none other than the Creole patois, a distorted French dialect which the newly arrived African slaves evolved out of their own distortion of the language of their masters. This type of French, although varied in pronunciation in different localities, has been found to have a uniformly basic structure in regard to the rules of grammar wherever it is spoken. Many French-speaking people of Louisiana believe that “It takes a whole life to speak such a language in form.”1
The African slave was at a disadvantage in the New World. He was thrust into a more complex civilization whose speech was at variance with his own. He was at a disadvantage when at work, in times of stress and danger, in warding off punishments for real or fancied wrongdoings, while on the streets, or in the courts. He was even at a disadvantage when being sold, and commanded a cheaper price in cases where he did not understand enough of the language of his masters to make possible even the rudest exchange of speech with them. Misconceptions of certain sounds of speech, a continuous erosion of some words and a distortion of others, loose articulation and a want of energy in speaking, all combined to produce a Creole patois of today.2 It was this patois that the African slave slowly evolved out of the dire necessity of a better understanding between him and his French masters in the New World. And just as he evolved Creole in the French-speaking sections, he also evolved “Bouriki,” a type of